These photographs are of Test Pilots,Engineers,and various research and production aircraft flown on test flights mostly from the late 1940's through to the present day.
Most of these have been kindly signed by those depicted

Monday, August 25, 2008

Pierre 'Tito' Maulandi 1920-2008

The Baroudeur was a single seat turbojet fighter that didn't need long runways. The jet could take of from trolleys that could operate from grass fields, and could land on three retractable skids. These skids could also be used for take off from snow or ice covered conditions, and the trolley carried six rockets for rough ground support. The first Baroudeur flew on August 1, 1953. A second prototype flew on May 2, 1954. Two months later the second prototype reached Mach 1 in a shallow dive. However no production order was made.Pierre 'Tito' Maulandi flew the maiden flights of the SE 5000 Baroudeur in 1953 and the SE212 Durandal in 1956.